The after world
by Matthew1972
Summary: AU to the Merlin series. With one curse of her black magic Morgana had destroyed the world unintentionally. Mordred believes he is left as an only survivor and he walks the icy surface of the After World alone…


**The after world**

The wind howled all around him, in an endless whisper of loneliness. Mordred shivered against the snow and the cold. Nothing but ice surrounded him. His days and nights were spend in utter silence ever since the day the world ended with a bang. Only the wind and snow accompanied him on his long track into the after world. What seemed like an endless winter travelled with him, no matter where he went. All that was left of the life before were ruins and memories…

Hatred never led to anything but destruction. He had tried to tell Morgana this when he returned, but she wouldn't listen. In the years he had not seen her her mind went to a dark place too hard to pull back out from. Feeling abandoned by her family and mistrusted by her friends her heart had slowly turned cold. When Mordred saw her again he'd been scared, both for her and of her. Something had snapped inside of her mind and she no longer resembled the young Lady who offered a hurt druid boy the chance to live again. In the end it was in one final crazy attempt to get what she wanted that Morgana destroyed the world and left him to pick up the pieces of his life on his own.

In all honesty being alone was nothing new to him, for all his life Mordred had been alone in some way or another. Whispers always followed him where ever he was. People feared him and even the druids seemed to be wary around him, but Mordred never knew why. Maybe it was just the way things were back then.

In this world with everyone gone he no longer felt the need to fit in anywhere. He could just be who he was and no one would judge him. Magic could flow freely and no one was around to stop him. There was quite a comfort in all of this.

Even better was he now had a daily memory of his father Cerdan. His own gift had always leaned towards the destructive side, until in this snow covered world he found he could speak to the animals, just like his father used to. Not literally of course, but when he reached out with his mind to them they seemed to listen in some way. Suddenly he wasn't alone anymore.

The large, albino wolf he named Emrys travelled with him since the day they crossed paths when he was ten days into his journey to nowhere. Both were starving for contact in this near abandoned world, but hunting together brought food into their bellies and warmth to their sides. They became a pack of two lost souls. As days went by Emrys trusted him more and more, until finally he looked to Mordred as the alpha. The irony wasn't lost on Mordred. In the world before the spell cursed it Merlin, or rather Emrys, had never trusted him for a moment.

A squawk announced the arrival of the pack's rather unusual third member. A black dot came closer and closer, until Mordred recognized the shape of a crow. Offering up his shoulder he stood straight and waited for their winged friend to land. With one single thought of his mind he reached out to welcome it. It squawked again as if to answer him back with a greeting of his own. One day soon he would have to settle on a name for it.

Together the three continued their journey. Man, wolf and crow, the world was theirs to explore. One day they would watch the snow melt. It was a promise Mordred made to himself on his good days. Maybe it was wishful thinking, maybe not. Nature always sought some form of balance. The druids taught him this much. So for each flake of cold snow, he wished to dream there was a ray of sunshine and of hope.

But where ever he went pale green eyes followed him. He dreamed of the final day, of Morgana's cry of triumph before the world turned against her. All her anger had turned to snow and what little was left of her love into light. In some weird way in this world they came together and sought a new balance. Morgana was not only the destroyer of the world for she also created a new one in it's place, a world he believed made more sense than it should. For this he would always thank her, even though in his heart he felt all the suffered losses.

Sometimes he saw footsteps in the snow. Had someone else made it here too? Some days he followed them, only to find the wind sweep them away again. Other times the spirit of Morgana taunted him with a smirk before she disappeared into the white sky all around him. Her laughter the only sound in his ears before the wind took away his breath. As days turned to weeks and then months he learned to ignore all of his demons.

The pack of three lived an easy life. At night Emrys howled to the moon to warn off evil spirits, or creatures. During the day the crow alerted them when something worth chasing came up ahead of them. Together the two would hunt for food, which all three shared by the fire. At night wolf and man slept cuddled close together, the fur between them keeping them warm. The crow only needed a branch above their heads, from where he would wake them the next morning

Mordred did not need anything else besides their friendship and his freedom to simply be. A world without rules, without hatred and without judgement suited him well. Here he felt loved and respected. It was all he ever wanted. The previous world was soon nothing but a bad memory on his mind.


End file.
